Judge John H. Reid was brought in to preside over a discrete but contentious discovery battle on August 8, 1995, ruling on the defense's bid to obtain witness statements from an LAPD Internal Affairs investigation into leaks of DNA testing results to the press. Arriving expressly unfamiliar with the broader case, he quickly grasped the stakes as defense attorney Gerald Uelmen argued that the leak investigation — which had interviewed key prosecution witnesses including lab director Michele Kestler, deputy chief David Gascon, and criminalist Collin Yamauchi — went to the heart of the defense's evidence-tampering theory and could contain Brady material. Reid pressed both sides to stay focused, repeatedly steering Uelmen away from tangential privilege arguments and back to the narrow question of whether witness statements from that internal probe should be turned over to Judge Ito for in camera review.